Dum Dum Diddle
by Ninny Weasley
Summary: Ron was standing in the dark, at the top of the Astronomy tower, at 12:30am on a Thursday. Now one might ask what it was that he would be doing at the top of the Astronomy tower at 12:30am on a Thursday, except no one knew that he was there.
1. The Song

Disclaimer: If you know this song, kudos to you, but it's older than me, so it can't possibly be mine. It belongs to the legendary ABBA. As for the characters, if you haven't noticed that this is a fan fiction site, and all these characters belong to JK Rowling, then I feel sorry for you.

Author Note: Well, I don't know if any of you listen to ABBA at all, but I have a record of theirs (primitive, I know) and I was just sitting, thinking the other day when I realized that two of their songs from the record would be really fun to make into songfics, so here goes. Enjoy.

~Ninny Weasley~

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

Dum Dum Diddle

Ron was standing in the dark, at the top of the Astronomy tower, at 12:30am on a Thursday. Now one might ask what it was that he would be doing at the top of the Astronomy tower at 12:30am on a Thursday, except no-one knew that he was there. No one except Ron, that is.

The truth was that Ron didn't even know why he was there. He had just woken up at midnight one night, for no reason at all, and had an irresistible urge to go for a walk. Just to be on the safe side, Ron had borrowed Harry's Invisibility cloak from it's hiding place (magically reduced until it would have fit a mouse, and then folded up in an old pair of uncle Vernon's socks, which was then hidden under the corner of Harry's mattress), and set off down the corridor.

Once he was outside the common room, he headed left, the right, then right again, then up a staircase, until he was completely lost. It was all her fault, too. He knew now why he had woken up. He was thinking about her again, and when he thought about her, he could never sleep. It was a wonder he ever got any sleep at all, really.

He kept walking, hoping to see something he recognised, so as to get his bearings. The suits of armour were no use, as they moved around as they pleased, as did the people in the paintings which lined the walls of all the corridors in the Hogwarts castle.

He stumbled, as his foot caught on the hem of the Invisibility cloak, and he swore loudly before regaining his balance. Carefully he slunk close to the wall of the corridor, listening for anyone that might have heard him. When he was sure that no one was around, he kept walking, more alert now than he was before, listening intensely in the darkness.

A strange sound met his ears, and he nearly jumped with surprise, as he listened harder. 

Nothing. Then something. The nothing. 

He walked forwards, strangely drawn by the snatches of the weird, disjointed melody he heard, floating down the corridor.

As he got closer, the notes strung together to form a sweet, mournful tune. It sounded like a muggle instrument he had heard played on one of the stations he had listened to with the radio (charmed to work off electricity) that he had been given for Christmas that year.

As he drew closer to the source of the music, he realized that he was at the entrance to the Astronomy tower, and began to climb the stairs to find out what was making this sweet, sad music that filled his ears drew him so.

He climbed out onto the roof, captured by the rhythm and the colours of the music. And then he saw her. She was standing on the roof, eyes closed, focussed entirely on the music she was making with her violin. He stared, mouth hanging slightly open, as he watched her. He had never seen something so beautiful, and he wanted to stay there forever, secretly watching. But the night flew by, and before he knew it, she opened her eyes, yawned, packed away her violin, and headed back down to her dormitory.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

She had been back the next night; and the next; and every night for almost a term now. Every night, as soon as the other girls in her dorm were asleep, she would retrieve her violin and head out to play, alone, or so she thought. But every night Ron followed her, wanting to watch her again. He didn't know how long she had been playing the violin in secret, but he never wanted to miss out on seeing her play again. He was entranced by her music, and he was entranced by her.

A few times he had convinced himself that he would reveal himself – throw off the cloak, and profess his love for her – but it had never happened. When she started playing he couldn't move. She was in her own world, and he was spellbound by her. So night after night he watched. 

And here he was again tonight. Watching from the cover of the Invisibility cloak. Silently wishing that he was the violin she loved so much.

**I can hear how you work, practising hard  
Playing night and day, woah-oh  
And it sounds better now  
Yes, you improve every time you play, woah-oh**

He had listened as she improved every night. She hardly made any mistakes now, and she played so many different songs. Some were ones she had played before, others were new ones. Some he even suspected she made up herself. All were beautiful.

  
**But it's bad  
You're so sad  
And you're only smiling  
When you play your violin  
  
**

She was different now from when he had met her six years ago. She had calmed down a bit since then, and she was certainly more mature, but there was something missing. A spark in her had somehow gone out when Voldemort returned. Some of the life in her had been taken away, and it made Ron want to do terrible things to whoever was responsible for it.

  
**Dum-dum-diddle, to be your fiddle  
To be so near you and not just hear you  
Dum-dum-diddle, to be your fiddle  
I think then maybe you'd see me, baby  
You'd be mine  
And we'd be together all the time  
Wish I was, dum-dum-diddle, your darling fiddle  
  
**

He wished that she loved him as much as she loved her violin. He watched her as she held the bow, expertly stroked it against the strings, gently fingered out the chords. There was something she poured out into playing that thing that she never shared with him, or anyone. It was strictly between her, and her violin.

**But I think you don't know that I exist  
I'm the quiet kind, woah-oh  
From the day when I first listened to you  
You've been on my mind, woah-oh  
  
**

Ron had always been a bit shy around girls, but she had him absolutely stumped. He could never tell her how he felt – not in a million years. He didn't know when he had started loving her. It kind of snuck up on him, he guessed. There was no one thing that had made him fell that way. Not one thing, but everything. Everything she did made him love her more, until he felt like he would burst from the sheer magnitude of the feelings inside him. 

But he was too shy to tell her, and so nothing had come of it.

**You don't care  
It's not fair  
And you're only smiling  
When you play your violin  
  
**

He was pretty sure that she didn't like him, anyway. What would a beautiful, intelligent and passionate girl like her want to do with gangly, freckle-faced, dirt poor Ron Weasley? She was his friend, nothing more. Besides, she was way out of his league, and from what he could tell, she saved up all her passion for that damned instrument. She didn't have room for him is her life, what with her studies, a busy social life, and her midnight adventures to the Astronomy tower.

  
**Dum-dum-diddle, to be your fiddle  
To be so near you and not just hear you  
Dum-dum-diddle, to be your fiddle  
I think then maybe you'd see me, baby  
You'd be mine  
And we'd be together all the time  
Dum-dum-diddle, to be your fiddle  
To be so near you and not just hear you  
Dum-dum-diddle, to be your fiddle  
I think then maybe you'd see me, baby  
You'd be mine  
And we'd be together all the time  
Wish I was, dum-dum-diddle, your darling fiddle **

For the first time after watching her for nearly a term, he looked away. There was no point in him staying here, watching her in secret, if he was never going to tell her how he felt. There was no point in him wasting his emotions on her, when she couldn't possibly feel for him like he did for her.

He sighed inwardly, as he turned, pulled the cloak tighter around him, and silently walked away down the stairs towards the common room.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

Hermione stirred at what she thought was the sound of a cloak swishing. She lifted her bow from the strings and opened her eyes. "Ron?" she said, and then frowned. Of course it wasn't Ron. What would he be doing at the top of the Astronomy tower at midnight, watching her play her violin in the dark?

She was jumping to conclusions. Her mind was telling her what she wanted it to. Of course, she would have loved for him to be there; to share in her music. Hell, if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't need to sneak off and let all her passion out on this damned instrument; if he only felt for her like she felt for him. But there was no hope for that. Why would funny, passionate, and of late rather handsome Ron Weasley want anything to do with boring, bookish Hermione Granger? She could answer that question easily – because he was her friend. But it wasn't enough. She wanted more, but she knew that he could never love her like she had grown to love him these past six years.

She sighed as she packed up her violin and headed back down to the common room.

~Fin.~

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

AN: Well, that turned out a lot sadder that I intended. I'd love to hear that it made someone cry. Then I'd know I did a good job. I hope the next one will be happier.

Thanks for reading!

~Ninny Weasley~


	2. The Argument

Disclaimer: Yes, I am the wonderful and talented JK Rowling who owns all these brilliantly quirky characters and settings! That's why I'm giving it all away on the internet for free!

AN: Wow, thankyou so much for everyone who reviewed the first chapter of 'Dum-Dum-Diddle'. I had only intended for it to be a one-shot, but I opened up my inbox, and there were all these wonderful reviews asking for more! And just because I love reviews, I obliged. So here it is: the second chapter of 'Dum-Dum-Diddle'.

~Ninny Weasley~

Dum Dum Diddle

Chapter the Second

The next day was a trying one for all three members of the Golden Trio. Hermione was tired, and consequently her patience with Harry and Ron was wearing thin, Ron was tired, and consequently grumpy, and Harry was tired of Ron and Hermione constantly snapping at each other, so he wasn't in the best of moods either. Harry, not being completely unaware of what was going on around him, had also realized that this constant bickering was due mainly to the fact that both Ron and Hermione fancied each other, but each were to stubborn (or in Ron's case, clueless) to tell the other. This made for a lot of tension between the two of them, and it was a rare occasion when they didn't engage in at least one screaming match every second day.

Today was no different from any other day, and since Ron and Hermione had been perfectly civil to one another yesterday, they were due for a row.

It happened when the two of them, plus Harry, were sitting in the common room together after dinner. Ron and Harry had been discussing the Chudley Cannons' chances of making it into the Quidditch Grand Final that year ("Not bloody likely, unless they get a new keeper!" Ron had exclaimed), and Hermione was leaning over a table doing her Charms homework. She was onto her fourth roll of parchment for her essay 'Engorgement Charms and their Practical Applications in Today's Wizarding Society' when Harry and Ron's conversation died down, and the two were left sitting in a comfortable silence, daydreaming about Quidditch, and other things sixteen-year-old boys daydream about.

Ron started humming absently, a low, sweet tune which made Hermione's head snap up from her Charms homework as she stared suddenly at him.

"What?" Ron had said defensively, the tips of his ears colouring as he realized that he had in fact been humming one of the songs he had heard Hermione play countless times on her violin. A song that he was most likely not supposed to know, as he was also most likely not meant to have ever heard it.

"Nothing," Hermione answered quickly, before turning her eyes back to her essay, but Ron could see that her eyes were no longer moving, nor was her quill. Surely he could have heard that song anywhere. There was absolutely no reason for her to suspect him of anything.

She looked up again, sensing the boys' eyes on her.

"What?" she asked, mimicking Ron's tone as he had said the same thing moments earlier.

"Nothing," they mimicked in unison, purely out of habit on Harry's part, and lack of something else to say on Ron's.

She continued to look back and forth between the two boys, as if trying to deduce some secret they were sharing.

"Hermione," Harry broke in, looking concerned. "Are you ok? You seem a bit… jumpy," he finished. Both boys grimaced, bracing themselves for the impending lecture. Hermione's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Well," she began sharply. "Well I just haven't been sleeping very well lately," she finished, her face softening.

Before he could help himself, Ron snorted loudly. Hermione raised her eyebrows at him questioningly as he suddenly became very interested in his feet (which, by pure coincidence, happened to be quite interesting as they were currently wearing very large, bright orange Chudley Cannons sneakers). Then came the lecture.

"What, Ronald Weasley?" Now he knew he was in trouble. Only his mother called him Ronald, and only the Slytherins called him by his last name. Hermione must have been really irritated to use both. "Just because you never do any homework, and you neglect your Prefect's duties, and basically all you do is eat, sleep and play Quidditch, doesn't mean that the rest of us have all the time in the world to rest and do whatever the hell we like! This year is a very important year for us! All of the knowledge we learn this year is the foundation for our N.E.W.T.s next year!"

Ron tuned out after this, his mind wandering to Quidditch, and how long he had to wait for breakfast the next morning. Hermione, unfortunately for Ron, noticed the glazed look in his eyes, and unsympathetically snapped him out of his musings by further raising her (already quite loud) voice.

"Ron!" she yelled at him. "You really don't listen to a word I say, do you?!"

"Well maybe if you'd say something else apart from lecturing me I would listen!" he spat back, surprised at his own speed.

Hermione looked hurt, the glare faltering as her face dropped, only to reappear with a vengeance a second later as she recovered her guard.

"As much as I'd like to stay and continue this conversation," she said acidly, in a tone reminiscent of Draco Malfoy, "_I, for one, have better things to do with my time than try to talk with someone who isn't even listening, and is hardly worth my time anyway! Like __sleep!" She shot Ron one more Death-glare before scooping her parchments, books and quills into her bag, swinging it over her shoulder, and stalking off up the staircase to the girls' dorms with her nose in the air, and without so much as a backward glance at Harry or Ron, the latter of whom was currently fuming to the extent that he would have drawn blood from his palms by digging his nails into them if Harry hadn't noticed this and promptly alerted him to the matter at hand (or perhaps _hands_! Tee hee)._

"Talk _with_ me, will she? More like _at_ me!" Ron said darkly, when Harry had stopped staring at the (now empty) stairway and closed his mouth.

"Perhaps you should apologise," Harry began, "In the morning, when she's had a chance to cool off." He didn't want to know what she would do to Ron if he went after her now.

"No way! She should apologise to me! I didn't do anything wrong, and she just ups and starts yelling at me! Besides, you heard her. I'm 'hardly worth her time anyway'!" He glowered at the flames dancing merrily in the grate, as though begrudging them their joviality.

Harry said nothing, fearing Ron's wrath would be turned upon him if he dared interrupt the boy's seething. He could tell that this was going to be one of Ron and Hermione's nastier altercations.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

Breakfast the next morning came all too soon for the liking of all three members of the Trio, and only served to prove Harry's notion from the previous night to be quite true. The tension between Ron and Hermione as they sat at the breakfast table, either side of Harry, could have been cut with a knife. After about 10 minutes of enduring their attempts at making polite conversation with him, but avoiding at all costs talking to or even looking at the other one, Harry was more than sick of Ron and Hermione's company. He decided, sneakily, to leave the two of them at the mercy of each other, and leave breakfast early. He would ask the other Gryffindor Sixth year boys (namely Dean, Seamus and Neville), if anything interesting had happened after he went.

"Oi, 'Arry! Where 'oo 'oin'?" Ron yelled through a mouthful of bacon at Harry's retreating back.

"I left my wand up-stairs," he lied, knowing that Ron would accept this as the truth, and only feeling very slightly guilty about it. Ron made a face, and continued munching.

"And I suppose you have to go to the library?" he said sarcastically to Hermione after finishing his mouthful, noticing that she was getting up to leave as well.

"No," she said loftily. "I just don't want to stay here with you!" she said nonchalantly, and promptly marched off. Ron noticed that she was getting extremely good at walking around with her nose in the air, 'like she thinks she's better than the rest of us or something', he thought. He didn't know just how much his words had hurt Hermione the previous night, or that she had cried herself to sleep. He didn't know that right now, the same Hermione was in the girls' bathroom, trying not to burst into tears again.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

AN: Well, I'm glad that worked out. Just remind me when I'm slack with posting that I always end up writing something if I just _start! Thanks for reading everyone, and stay tuned for the next two chapters. I know that's only four, but it's the longest story I've done so far, and I think it's long enough. _

Questions? Comments? Flames?! You know where to find me.

~Ninny Weasley~


	3. Broken

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these spifferiffic characters of settings (duh!), but if JK doesn't want them, I'll have 'em!

AN: Once again, thankyou all so much for the wonderful response I received to my second chapter of Dum Dum Diddle. You guys are awesome.

~Ninny Weasley~

Dum Dum Diddle

Chapter the Third

Ron Weasley tossed and turned in his bed, once again unable to sleep. He had promised himself the previous night that he would no longer sneak out to the Astronomy Tower at night, to spy on Hermione while she was playing her violin in secret (or so she thought), but he just wanted to watch her play one more time. 

After becoming so tangled in his sheets that he fell out of bed, fortunately not waking anyone, he got up. He decided that he would go to the tower again (he never could keep a promise to himself), and this time he would tell her how he felt. All thoughts of rejection and ridicule were pushed form his mind. If he didn't get this out, no matter what the consequences, he would surely go crazy.

He went to the bathroom, dressed, retrieved the invisibility cloak, and set off for the tower, convinced that he would tell Hermione how he felt about her, and… and then he didn't know what, but he had to find out.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

When Ron reached the top of the Astronomy Tower, sure enough – there she was. Hermione was standing right where Ron had expected to find her, playing softly on her violin with her eyes shut tight. He sighed inwardly as he realized that tonight was just like any of the other nights when he had come to watch her. He had often toyed with the idea of telling her how he felt about her, but he couldn't do it. Not then, and not now, either.

He stayed a few more minutes to watch her play, but the song she had been playing finished, and dejectedly, he decided to leave again.

As he turned to go, his foot caught once again on the hem of the invisibility cloak, and he was reminded of the last time he had been there. He flailed his arms in a vain attempt to regain his balance, but could feel himself falling fast. As he hit the ground, his head struck a sharp brick, jutting out from the wall's edge, and he blacked out.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

Hermione started as she heard a swish, followed by a yell, and the sound of something heavy striking something hard. She placed her violin and bow carefully on the ground as she looked towards the place where she heard the sounds, but could see nothing that could have caused them. Worried, she drew her wand and continued to look cautiously around her.

"Harry?" she said warily; "Ron?"

No answer. 

"If this is some kind of a joke, it's so far from funny…" she trailed off. If it were Harry or Ron who had made the sound, they weren't likely to own up to it now. Besides, why would they be up here spying on her anyway? As far as they knew, she was in bed, asleep, in the Sixth year Gryffindor girls' dormitory, where she should be.

No, it wasn't Harry or Ron. So who was it? Malfoy? It was definitely possible. Voldemort, or one or more of his Death Eaters, come to kidnap her and use her to get to Harry? Probable. She wracked her brain for the most powerful spell she could use to ward off a group of highly trained dark wizards, but only succeeded in becoming extremely scared and anxious.

"Okay," she said, trying her best to sound assertive and unafraid; "Whoever you are, you'd better show yourselves before I start shooting hexes everywhere!" Still nothing. She wanted to make a run for the exit, but she was pretty sure that that was where the noises came from, so she stayed, feet rooted to the spot, turning in circles trying to see something of the person, or the thing, which had made the noises.

An icy blast of wind stung her face and eyes, and she covered them with her hands until it passed. What she saw when she removed them made her scream.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

There, lying on the ground about six feet from the exit, was a foot. No sign was there of the rest of a body. Just a foot, and a few inches of ankle and shin. More to the point, the skin on the ankle and shin was pale, and lightly smattered with orange freckles, and the foot was wearing very large, violent orange Chudley Cannons sneakers. Hermione screamed again, at the realization that this disembodied foot belonged to none other than Ron Weasley, and then again, louder and higher pitched, at the thought of what might have been done to him in order for his foot to be out here at the top of the Astronomy Tower without the rest of him.

A strained, animalistic sound escaped her as her small frame contorted and folded, wracked with sobs, to the floor. No logical, ordered, Hermioneish thoughts were running through her mind at this moment. Death Eaters had captured Ron - _her Ron - and she didn't know where he was now, or even whether he was dead or alive. She didn't know if he was alive or not when they had somehow removed part of his leg and foot._

Even if he was still alive, chances are they would kill him after they had gotten the information they wanted from him. No, he would never betray Harry. They would kill him because he wouldn't talk.

What was the last thing she had said to him? That she didn't want to stay with him; that he wasn't worth her time. He would never know how she truly felt about him, and all because she was too childish and stubborn to just tell him, instead of causing them both grief by entering into stupid arguments about nothing.

She knew that he didn't mean what he had said to her the night before, and she was sure he knew she hadn't meant what she had said either, but now she would never know.

She curled harder into herself as she cried. Everything inside of her was twisted into agonising knots of grief and despair.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

AN: Sorry, short chapter, but I had to leave it there. The next chapter is the end, and I will have it posted very soon (but don't stop the reviews, you guys are excellent!). Until then, thanks for reading!

~Ninny Weasley~


	4. The Beginning

Disclaimer: The day I own these splendiferous characters and settings is the day Malfoy dances naked in front of me, and turns into a teapot at midnight. (Actually, I wouldn't mind the whole dancing naked bit! Tee hee.) Sounds like an idea for a fan fic! No, no, just kidding. On with the show!

Dum Dum Diddle

Chapter the Fourth

She didn't know how long she lay there, crying, broken, heartbroken. Her weeping had slowed and her breathing was less ragged, when she realized that whoever it was that had been there, who had delivered this fiendish omen to her, had most certainly done all the damage that they had intended, and left her there to cry her heart out on the cold, hard floor. Slowly she pulled herself into a sitting position, hardly noticing the pain and stiffness in her limbs as she forced them to move. 

She steeled herself for what she was about to do, and stood, slowly walking over to the thing which had caused her so much grief. As she walked, still moaning quietly as tears streamed down her already wet cheeks, she noticed two things which surprised her. She scrunched her nose up in curiosity and bafflement as she noticed that the leg and foot, Ron's leg and foot, appeared not to have been severed, roughly or otherwise, but simply stopped.

She had no time to ponder this further, however, as at this moment she screamed and jumped as she heard a muffled groaning coming from the empty space somewhere between Ron's foot and the wall behind it.

Wild eyed and near hysterical, she spun around once more, fearing that whoever had brought Ron's foot was back again. She shuddered at the thought of what they might bring this time, as she heard the noise again.

"Mmmrph?" It was louder this time, and sounded confused.

"Who's there?" Hermione said quickly, staring piercingly at the place where the noise came from.

"'Mione?" the voice said, questioningly.

"Who are you? What do you want?" she shrieked.

Again, Hermione screamed, unaware of the extreme damage her vocal chords had endured over the course of the night, as she heard a swishing sound and saw an arm, followed by the rest of a body, appear out of the thin air which previously appeared to occupy the space where the noises had come from. She stared with wide, frightened eyes, hardly able to believe what she had just witnessed.

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

There, joined to Ron Weasley's foot, was the rest of Ron Weasley, apparently unhurt apart form a small gash on his forehead which was dripping blood down the bridge of his nose, and most definitely alive.

Hermione watched, frozen in complete and utter shock as Ron threw the invisibility cloak to one side, and looked around at Hermione. He reached up to touch his forehead, and winced as his fingers found the wound from where he had hit his head against the wall when he fell.

It was Ron who broke the silence.

"'Mione? I've hit my head," he finished pathetically, wondering wether she had been petrified again, or was just doing her best impression of a stunned mullet.

"Ron!" she finally managed to choke out. Finding no other words to express the assortment of emotions running riot through her being, she recovered the use of her limbs, and ran the distance between them, collapsing next to Ron and throwing herself, now crying as hard as she was before, onto his chest. Shocked, he sat there, patiently waiting for the tears to stop, so that he could ask her what had happened, and do something about the blood which had now stopped dripping, and was drying on his face.

When she finally stopped crying, she looked up at him.

"You're hurt," she said, as she pulled a tissue out of a pocket in her robes, and began to clean some of the dried blood from where it had dripped onto his nose and chin.

"Hermione?" he asked, before she put a finger to his lips and shushed him.

"I'm taking you to the hospital wing," she told him "We can talk about what happened after Madame Pomfrey has fixed you up." Her tone was final, and neither of them spoke as she stood, helped Ron to his feet, and didn't let go of his hand until they reached the hospital wing.

As expected, Madame Pomfrey mended Ron's head in a jiffy, and although she gave the pair a few odd glances, she asked no questions as to how Ron came to be at the Hospital Wing at such a time in the morning, with Hermione in tow, and a nasty looking wound to the head.

As they were walking back towards the Gryffindor Common room, an uncomfortable silence having settled over them, Ron stopped suddenly.

"The cloak. We have to go back," he said, more to himself than Hermione.

"It can wait 'till morning, Ron," she replied, laying a small hand on his arm so as to steer him forwards.

"No, I want to go back. We can talk about what happened tonight," he said, deciding that it was finally time to confess to Hermione that he had been watching her, and why.

"Ron, it's late," she pleaded, tugging on his sleeve, but he refused to budge.

"Not too late for you to be out there playing you violin, is it?" he countered, instantly wishing he hadn't, as he watched her surprised expression turn into a deadly glare.

"I was watching you," he admitted, before she could ask.

"Ron," she faltered, the glare fading into non-existence. "I thought…" she paused and took a deep breath, fixing her gaze on his eyes. "I thought you were dead."

"What? No, I fell, and I hit my head - Oh," he stopped, as he realized that Hermione couldn't see him when he had fallen and knocked himself unconcious. She could have thought anything was happening. "I tripped on the cloak and there was this sharp rock and; here-" he walked forwards, taking Hermione's hand gently in his, from where it was still tugging on his sleeve. Hermione followed obediently behind him. "-I'll show you."

When they reached the top of the Astronomy tower, he stood and faced Hermione.

"Hermione, I've been watching you," he confessed again. Her face remained emotionless, listening. "Not just tonight, every night for almost the entire term. I borrowed Harry's invisibility cloak so that you couldn't see me, and then tonight I tripped, and I hit my head on this stone," here he gestured towards the jagged stone sticking out of the wall where he fell. "And I just blacked out, and then you had stopped playing, and you were crying, and I didn't know what to do…" she said nothing, still staring blankly up into his eyes. "I'm sorry."

Hermione looked like she was about to cry again, and then she did something that Ron was not expecting. She slapped him across his cheek, as hard as she could.

"Don't you ever do anything like that to me again, Ron Weasley, EVER!" she yelled at him, and dissolved into tears again, covering her face with her hands.

Still shocked from being slapped, Ron sighed and put his arms around her shoulders, drawing her to him. He was still uncomfortable when Hermione cried, but it was his fault this time, and she seemed to like being hugged when she was crying - or at least she didn't mind it - and that was reason enough for him.

Hermione sniffled as she put her arms around Ron's waist, busying her face into his shoulder. Ron smiled and rested his cheek on the top of her head as they stood there, swaying slowly on the spot as though dancing to some unheard melody, the cloak and the violin laying forgotten on the ground.

He knew he was forgiven. They would talk about what had happened tomorrow. For now there were things to be said without words.

Ron opened his eyes to see that the sky was beginning to lighten to the east over Hogsmeade.

"Hermione," he said gently as he released her from their embrace. "Look."

She lifted her head and turned around, snuggling back into Ron's chest as he held her around her waist from behind. They stood there together and watched the sun rise, glittering on the rooftops of the village.

"Hermione, I'm sorry," Ron said again. "I'm sorry for spying on you. I'm sorry for scaring you. I'm sorry I was so stupid."

"You have no idea what it's like, Ron," she replied, turning around in his arms so that she was now facing him, looking up at him with those big brown eyes. "I thought you were dead. I thought I'd never see you again. You have no idea how that feels."

It was now or never, Ron decided, and with only the tiniest moment of hesitation, Ron told her what he had wanted to for six years.

"Hermione, I love you."

She said nothing, gazing into his eyes as though she was looking at his inner being, trying to see if he was telling the truth.

"I love you, too," she said finally, a small smile creeping onto the edges of her mouth for the first time that night.

"You- you do?" he faltered, "I mean, you do! That's great!" He grinned widely.

And with this he leaned down and kissed her, all his worries and pains ebbing away into nothingness as everything outside himself and Hermione slowly faded away.

When they broke away, she smiled mischievously at him as he beamed down at her.

"You know, I'm going to tell Harry you nicked his invisibility cloak," she teased him.

"Oh yeah, well then I'm going to tell McGonagall about your late-night rendezvous to play your violin!" he replied.

"Are not!" she said, slapping him playfully on the arm.

"No, you're right," he sighed. "I guess I'm not. As long as you don't tell Harry about the cloak."

"Deal," she said "Although I don't know how we're going to keep it from him. We're going to have to tell him about… 'us'… eventually," she said.

"So there's an 'us' now, is there?" he grinned.

"Yeah, I guess there is," she smiled back.

Still locked in their embrace, their lips met again, and all worries of Harry and the rest of the world were dispelled, and for one perfect moment, in a world so riddled with war and grief, everything was beautiful.

**Dum-dum-diddle, to be your fiddle  
To be so near you and not just hear you  
Dum-dum-diddle, to be your fiddle  
I think then maybe you'd see me, baby  
You'd be mine  
And we'd be together all the time  
Wish I was, dum-dum-diddle, your darling fiddle  
  
**

o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o~*~o

AN: So there it is, the final chapter of Dum-Dum-Diddle. Thanks all for reading. *sighs contentedly* Also a big thankyou to all my wonderful reviewers. You guys helped make writing this worthwhile for me. I hope you liked the finished product.

Cheers all,

~Ninny Weasley~


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